Stelis megaloglossa Luer 1981 SECTION Nexipous
Drawing by © Carl Luer
Drawing by © Oscar Duque
Common Name The Large Tongue Stelis [refers to the large Dorsal Sepal]
Flower Size
Found in Risaralda and Nariño departments of Colombia at elevations around 1800 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing, caespitose epiphyte with erect, slender ramicauls enveloped by a tubular sheath from below the middle and 2 others at the base and carrying a single, apical, suberect, coriaceous, narrowly oblong-ellipitcal, obtuse, notched with an apiculum, narrowly cuneate below into the subpetiolate base leaf that blooms in the fall on an arching, arising through a spathe near the apex of the ramicaul, peduncle 1 to 1.6" [2.5 to 4 cm] log, rachis 1.8 to 3.6" 7 to 9 cm] long, in two rows, facing in opposite directions, mostly simultaneously many flowered inflorescence with close, as long as the ovary floral bracts and carrying purple, nonresupinate flowers.
"This species, most remarkable for its oversized dorsal sepal, seems to demonstrate a connection between Stelis nexiopus Garay 1958 and the species of the bilabiate section." Luer 1981
"It is characterized by a narrow, linear leaf that is surpassed by a distinctive raceme of 2 congested rows of opposite facing, dark purple flowers with a conspicuous, rounded dorsal sepal much larger than a short, transverse synsepal." Luer 2018
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Phytologia 49: 231 Luer 1981;
Orchidaceae Stelis Swartz A Compendium Duque 2008 drawing fide;
Harvard Pap. Bot. 23: 157 Luer & Escobar 2018 drawing fide
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
